Signed and dated verso

Ryoko Endo gestural abstract paintings are constructed with a controlled yet fluid mark-making, reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy. The artist layers exuberant marks, strokes, and dabs with a fluent touch. Endo’s paintings are built-up with opaque and translucent layers of acrylic paint; the varied thicknesses of brushstrokes and pigments create a striking dynamism. The artist’s lifelong study of chromatic relationships informs her bold approach to color and structure: her mentor Kaikuo Saito - a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, employed vibrant colors to create large, immersive canvases. Endo works at the juncture of meditative Sumi calligraphy and energetic Abstract Expressionism, producing saturated colorscapes that are both precise and expressive. Given the hybridity of the forms and traditions Endo channels, her work creates a visual experience that is simultaneously contemplative and charged, deliberate and spontaneous—loose in gesture yet anchored in formal discipline.

The boundaries between colors and forms blur in Sunday Siesta, creating an atmospheric effect. Overlapping textures, contrasting broad and thin brush strokes, and varying pigment thickness combine to create depth. The exciting all-over composition remains internally harmonious due to the careful arrangement of color and the formal balance of the piece. The warm ground tone modulates from a subdued tangerine to a soft rose and yellow while intersecting planes introduce cool tones of indigo, violet, and cerulean. Looping ribbons of white, black, and purple cut across the canvas, accents that produce a sense of striking visual lightness.